editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Anastasia Tsioulcas Sun, 18 Mar 2018 08:00:13 +0000Anastasia Tsioulcas http://wmot.org
Anastasia Tsioulcas Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Now we have news of more sexual assault allegations against two stars in the hip-hop world. The first is mogul Russell Simmons. Another woman has come forward to accuse him of rape. The second is the rapper Nelly. NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas has been following both stories and joins us now. Hi there. ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: Hi, Ari. SHAPIRO: Let's first talk about these new accusations against Russell Simmons. This is the sixth woman to accuse him of rape. Tell us about her and about the allegations. TSIOULCAS: Right. And she's actually one of more than a dozen women who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations overall. This woman is a filmmaker named Jennifer Jarosik, and she says that she had become friends with Simmons about 10 years before the alleged incident took place and that he had promised to help her produce and make a documentary film. And she visited him at his home in Los Angeles in August of 2016.Music Mogul Russell Simmons Faces New Sexual Assault Allegationshttp://wmot.org/post/music-mogul-russell-simmons-faces-new-sexual-assault-allegations
95475 as http://wmot.orgThu, 25 Jan 2018 21:21:00 +0000Music Mogul Russell Simmons Faces New Sexual Assault AllegationsAnastasia Tsioulcas The hip-hop, fashion and entertainment mogul Russell Simmons has been publicly accused of rape and sexual assault by 37-year-old filmmaker Jennifer Jarosik. She is now one of more than a dozen women who have accused Simmons of sexual misconduct, in allegations ranging from harassment to assault, and the sixth woman to publicly accuse Simmons of rape. Jarosik's lawsuit was filed Wednesday in California's Central District Court, seeking $5 million in damages. In the suit, Jarosik alleges that Simmons raped her in August 2016, 10 years after she says that she first met him. They became friends, the suit states, "as they shared a love and passion for meditation, yoga and a vegan diet," and Simmons later offered to be interviewed for a documentary film she was making. According to Jarosik, he also offered to co-produce and finance her film project. The lawsuit asserts that Jarosik was invited to Simmons' house in Los Angeles in August 2016. When Jarosik arrived, Simmons allegedly asked herRussell Simmons Publicly Accused Of Rape By A 6th Womanhttp://wmot.org/post/russell-simmons-publicly-accused-rape-6th-woman
95447 as http://wmot.orgThu, 25 Jan 2018 17:11:00 +0000Russell Simmons Publicly Accused Of Rape By A 6th WomanAnastasia Tsioulcas Updated Jan. 19 at 9:45 a.m. ET Dolores O'Riordan, the lead singer of the Irish band The Cranberries, has died suddenly at age 46. O'Riordan defined the sound of The Cranberries — with hit songs like "Linger," "Salvation" and "Zombie." She brought a particularly Irish inflection to pop charts around the world, particularly in the 1990s. Her publicist confirmed that O'Riordan died suddenly Monday in London, where she had been recording. London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement Tuesday morning that officers were called to a Westminster hotel Monday morning, where a 46-year-old woman was pronounced dead. The death is "not being treated as suspicious," the statement said, and the case has been given to the coroner's office. It will be some time before a cause of her death is established. The Westminster coroner's office told NPR on Friday that a postmortem examination has been done, but that it was awaiting several test results. In the meantime, the coroner's court has adjournedThe Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan Dies At 46http://wmot.org/post/cranberries-dolores-oriordan-dies-46
94812 as http://wmot.orgMon, 15 Jan 2018 18:35:00 +0000The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan Dies At 46Anastasia Tsioulcas The Metropolitan Opera has suspended its longtime conductor and former music director, James Levine , following allegations of sexual abuse reported by The New York Post and The New York Times . The three sets of allegations span from the 1960s to the '80s. Beyond his work at the Met, Levine has been a hugely influential figure in the classical music world for the past half-century — leading major orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and mentoring young musicians and opera singers at summer music programs such as the Ravinia Festival near Chicago. NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas speaks with Mary Louise Kelly about the allegations, what they mean for the Met and some of the broader implications for classical music. Hear the conversation at the audio link. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: The Metropolitan Opera has suspended its longtime conductor and former music director following allegations of sexual abuse. James Levine has been a hugelySexual Abuse Allegations Against James Levine Spell Trouble For Met Operahttp://wmot.org/post/sexual-abuse-allegations-against-james-levine-spell-trouble-met-opera
92429 as http://wmot.orgMon, 04 Dec 2017 21:42:00 +0000Sexual Abuse Allegations Against James Levine Spell Trouble For Met OperaAnastasia Tsioulcas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAgnJDJN4VA Updated at 11:05 p.m. ET One of the founding members of AC/DC, among the best-selling bands in recorded music history, died Saturday. Guitarist and songwriter Malcolm Young was 64 years old. Young's family, which announced his death in a statement, noted that he had suffered from dementia for several years. The place of his death was not shared, though the statement mentioned that he "passed away peacefully with his family by his bedside." In April of 2014, AC/DC announced that Young would be "taking a break from the band to ill health," without disclosing the nature of his illness; in September of that same year, the band revealed that he had dementia. Young's nephew, Stevie Young, toured and recorded with the group in his place. AC/DC was founded in Sydney, Australia, by two brothers, Malcolm (the seventh of eight children in the Young family) and his younger brother Angus. The brothers, who were born in Glasgow, Scotland (Malcolm on Jan. 6AC/DC Cofounder And Guitarist Malcolm Young Dies, Age 64http://wmot.org/post/acdc-cofounder-and-guitarist-malcolm-young-dies-age-64
91517 as http://wmot.orgSat, 18 Nov 2017 23:11:00 +0000AC/DC Cofounder And Guitarist Malcolm Young Dies, Age 64Anastasia Tsioulcas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1IBXE2G6zw Welcome back to the Caribbean, Alexander Hamilton: This morning, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer and lyricist of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning smash Hamilton: An American Musical , announced that he is taking the show to the University of Puerto Rico's campus in San Juan for a limited three-week run in January 2019. In Puerto Rico, Miranda himself will star as Alexander Hamilton — the first time he has reprised the role since he ended his Broadway run in July 2016. Other casting will be announced at a later date. In a press release early Wednesday, Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, said he had been hoping to bring his smash hit musical to the island ever since Hamilton first opened off-Broadway at New York's Public Theater two years ago. "When I last visited the island, a few weeks before Hurricane Maria," Miranda said, "I had made a commitment to not only bring the show to Puerto Rico, but also return again to the title role.Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Taking 'Hamilton' To Puerto Ricohttp://wmot.org/post/lin-manuel-miranda-taking-hamilton-puerto-rico
90964 as http://wmot.orgWed, 08 Nov 2017 20:30:00 +0000Lin-Manuel Miranda Is Taking 'Hamilton' To Puerto RicoAnastasia Tsioulcas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhb-kNvL6M Rock star Tom Petty has died, his manager Tony Dimitriades announced Monday. He was found in critical condition at his home in Malibu, Calif., Sunday night after suffering full cardiac arrest, as first reported by the website TMZ. Petty was taken to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital, where he died on Monday at 11:40 p.m. ET. Petty was a widely lauded songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He was 66 years old. Petty had just concluded his 40th anniversary tour with his band, The Heartbreakers, on Sept. 25 in Los Angeles. Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Fla.; as he told Terry Gross on WHYY's Fresh Air in 2006, he was from what he called the "redneck, hillbilly" part of town. "It's an interesting place," he remarked, "because you can meet almost any kind of person from many walks of life because of the university. But it's really surrounded by this kind of very rural kind of people that are — you know, they're farmersRock Star Tom Petty Dies At 66http://wmot.org/post/rock-star-tom-petty-dead-66
88931 as http://wmot.orgTue, 03 Oct 2017 04:31:00 +0000Rock Star Tom Petty Dies At 66Anastasia Tsioulcas Chester Bennington, one of the lead singers for the band Linkin Park and a former singer for Stone Temple Pilots, has died. His death was confirmed to NPR Thursday afternoon by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, which said that his body was discovered at a house in the 2800 block of Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles and that investigators are currently on the scene. The death is "being looked at as a possible suicide at this time," according to Brian Elias of the coroner's office. Bennington was 41 years old. Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda posted that he is "shocked and heartbroken" and that an official statement from the band is forthcoming. Earlier this month, Linkin Park finished a European and U.K. leg of an international tour in support of its current album, One More Light, with guest artists Machine Gun Kelly, One OK Rock and Snoop Dogg; the band's next scheduled tour date is July 27 in Mansfield, Mass. Although Linkin Park never gained much critical acclaim, the rapLinkin Park Singer Chester Bennington Dead At 41http://wmot.org/post/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead-41
85644 as http://wmot.orgThu, 20 Jul 2017 20:34:00 +0000Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington Dead At 41Anastasia Tsioulcas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Af_Ka0auw A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin taking a turn at the ivories in Beijing is currently making the Internet rounds. On Sunday, while awaiting a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state residence during the "Belt and Road" trade initiative , Putin was filmed sitting down to a piano to plunk out a couple of 1950s Soviet standards: " Evening Song ," by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi, and " Moscow Windows ," by Tikhon Khrennikov. The first is considered an unofficial anthem for the city of St. Petersburg, with lyrics like "Listen, Leningrad, I'll sing to you my sincere song." (During the Soviet era, the city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad.) After playing just a few notes, the Russian president visibly recoils, presumably because the piano sounds quite out of tune. But he decides to plunge ahead regardless. At his conclusion, Putin whispers something and then decisively shuts the piano's fallboard (the keyboard lid) and walksPutin Plays The Piano, With Perhaps Unintentional Undertoneshttp://wmot.org/post/putin-plays-piano-perhaps-unintentional-undertones
82171 as http://wmot.orgMon, 15 May 2017 16:19:00 +0000Putin Plays The Piano, With Perhaps Unintentional UndertonesAnastasia Tsioulcas Cuba Gooding, Sr., Star Of The Main Ingredient, Dies At 72http://wmot.org/post/cuba-gooding-sr-star-main-ingredient-dies-72
80936 as http://wmot.orgFri, 21 Apr 2017 04:18:00 +0000Cuba Gooding, Sr., Star Of The Main Ingredient, Dies At 72Anastasia Tsioulcas Today, Amazon announced the debut of an on-demand music-streaming service called Amazon Music Unlimited. With a subscription model like Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon will charge standard subscribers $10 per month; for Amazon Prime subscribers, just $8 a month; and for users of its Echo devices, only $4 a month. Amazon has been a first-stop destination for serious music fans wanting to buy physical albums, especially as brick-and-mortar music retailers' fortunes turned — in part because of the rise of Amazon. In more recent memory, however, Amazon's grip on the market has been challenged, first by download services like iTunes and then by streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. The New York Times reported this morning that Amazon's unlimited service will offer "tens of millions" of tracks on-demand, which will make it a much more reliable platform for music fans than its previous, playlist-driven Prime Music offerings. That service included only 2 million songs. TheAmazon Seeks To Recapture Music Fans With New Streaming Servicehttp://wmot.org/post/amazon-seeks-recapture-music-fans-new-streaming-service
71052 as http://wmot.orgWed, 12 Oct 2016 18:20:00 +0000Amazon Seeks To Recapture Music Fans With New Streaming ServiceAnastasia Tsioulcas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32n4h0kn-88 Last week in Cleveland, the music played at the Republican National Convention often seemed at odds with the messages coming from the stage – sometimes to the explicit distress of the musicians. By Sunday evening, with Donald Trump's event over and with Hillary Clinton's about to begin, an eclectic group of musicians had assembled on John Oliver's show Last Week Tonight for a skit with a bipartisan message: Their work shouldn't be used in the political realm. The motley crew included Usher, Cyndi Lauper, John Mellencamp, Josh Groban, Sheryl Crow, Michael Bolton, Nancy and Ann Wilson of Heart and Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons, all singing a "hands off" anthem: "Don't use our song / 'Cause you used it wrong / It might seem appealing / But you're just stealing." By contrast, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week, American musicians and entertainers — by and large a liberal bunch, it must be said — lined up to getCome Together (Or Not): Music At The Democratic National Conventionhttp://wmot.org/post/come-together-or-not-music-democratic-national-convention
67633 as http://wmot.orgSat, 30 Jul 2016 16:09:00 +0000Come Together (Or Not): Music At The Democratic National ConventionAnastasia Tsioulcas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOfwcj4MEQg The news out of Greece in the past several years has been pretty bad. An ongoing economic crisis has resulted in an unemployment rate that's hovering around 25 percent — currently, there's a major exodus of young, educated Greeks. And more than a million refugees and migrants have poured into the country in the past year and a half. So what is the Greek government doing in response? For one thing, it's sent a big art exhibition to Washington, D.C. The show, which opened in June and runs through early October, is called "The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great." It's a survey of 5,000 years of Greek art and artifacts. Most of the items have never left their homeland before. This stop in Washington is the last on a tour that also included the Field Museum and two stops in Canada: at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, near Ottowa, and the Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archeology and History Complex in Montreal. "We wanted, in theTo Rebrand Itself, Greece Digs Deep Into Its Cultural DNAhttp://wmot.org/post/rebrand-itself-greece-digs-deep-its-cultural-dna
67323 as http://wmot.orgFri, 22 Jul 2016 22:33:00 +0000To Rebrand Itself, Greece Digs Deep Into Its Cultural DNAAnastasia Tsioulcas Cleveland, Rocked: Music At The Republican National Conventionhttp://wmot.org/post/cleveland-rocked-music-republican-national-convention
67320 as http://wmot.orgFri, 22 Jul 2016 17:19:00 +0000Cleveland, Rocked: Music At The Republican National ConventionAnastasia Tsioulcas One of the world's best-known and best-loved classical musicians has joined the ranks of artists refusing to perform in North Carolina. Violinist Itzhak Perlman canceled an appearance scheduled for Wednesday with the North Carolina Symphony in Raleigh to protest HB2, the controversial North Carolina law limiting civil rights protections for LGBT people. HB2 excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from the state's non-discrimination laws and prevents local governments from offering discrimination protections that go beyond the state's. It also requires people to use public restrooms that correspond with the sex indicated on their birth certificates. Speaking by phone Wednesday, Perlman said he had been contemplating a cancellation and its repercussions for weeks. "The first thought was to cancel," he said. "And then I thought, 'Well, what's going to happen to the orchestra musicians? They're going to suffer. It's not their fault.' So I thought that I was going to go, andItzhak Perlman On Canceling In North Carolina: 'I Had To'http://wmot.org/post/itzhak-perlman-canceling-north-carolina-i-had
65196 as http://wmot.orgWed, 18 May 2016 19:51:00 +0000Itzhak Perlman On Canceling In North Carolina: 'I Had To'Anastasia Tsioulcas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auMcWKuB7sA In 2014, Sergei Roldugin told the New York Times , "I don't have millions." But if the document trail of the Panama Papers proves correct, this Russian cellist and conductor — and a close friend of Vladimir Putin since the 1970s — may actually possess much more than that. According to reporting from the consortium of 370 international journalists from over 100 news organizations working on the data leak of more than 11 million documents in what's become known as the Panama Papers, Roldugin — or at least his name — is at the center of a network in which up to $2 billion from Russian state banks has been hidden in offshore shell companies. In the wake of this massive document leak, a pair of articles centering on Roldugin have been published by the Guardian in the U.K. and a nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (the OCCRP ), whichCellist And Conductor Allegedly Helped Russians Move Billions Of Dollarshttp://wmot.org/post/cellist-and-conductor-allegedly-helped-russians-move-billions-dollars
63698 as http://wmot.orgMon, 04 Apr 2016 19:00:00 +0000Cellist And Conductor Allegedly Helped Russians Move Billions Of DollarsAnastasia Tsioulcas Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Music Streaming Takes Dominant Role In Industryhttp://wmot.org/post/music-streaming-takes-dominant-role-industry
63420 as http://wmot.orgSat, 26 Mar 2016 21:40:00 +0000Music Streaming Takes Dominant Role In IndustryAnastasia Tsioulcas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDsQT91N-7g You never know who you're going to meet at a party. In the case of one young man and woman, a Halloween celebration in New York City led not just to a love affair — it became part of the fabric of modern Cuba. I was going to Havana on a reporting trip to cover a contemporary music festival , and I needed a translator. Through a friend of a friend of a friend, I met Gabriela Burdsall. She's a member of Cuba's national modern dance troupe. As it turned out, Gabriela had her own, nearly unbelievable tale to tell. Gabriela is a member of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba — a company co-founded by her grandmother, Lorna Burdsall. But Lorna was just about as non-Cuban as you can get. "She was born in Connecticut. Preston, Connecticut," says Gabriela. And like so many dancers, she wanted to go to New York. "So she received classes at the Juilliard School with Martha Graham , Doris Humphrey , José Limón — very important dancers in that time," herStranger Than Fiction: Cuba, Spies, Bombs And Dancehttp://wmot.org/post/dance-dance-revolution-when-american-fell-love-castros-spy-chief
63097 as http://wmot.orgFri, 18 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000Stranger Than Fiction: Cuba, Spies, Bombs And DanceAnastasia Tsioulcas NPR's Audie Cornish spoke with Frannie Kelley of NPR Music's podcast Microphone Check about Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered. You can hear their conversation at the audio link. Hip-hop fans received a surprise Thursday night: an unexpectedly released project from Kendrick Lamar called untitled unmastered. Each of untitled unmastered. 's eight tracks is — as the album's name headlines — untitled, followed by a date. If those dates (most of which fall between 2013 and 2014) are correct, it means they were recorded during the same period as Lamar's masterful To Pimp A Butterfly . As of Friday morning, untitled unmastered. was available across many music platforms, including Spotify, iTunes and Tidal. When this music made its way online last night, some news outlets breathlessly hailed it as the leak of a "surprise new album" featuring " eight new songs ." That's not quite right, though. The project's title suggests a certain fluidity and work-in-progress liminality, and its cover isThere's A New Kendrick Lamar Project Out, But It May Sound Familiar Alreadyhttp://wmot.org/post/theres-new-kendrick-lamar-project-out-it-may-sound-familiar-already
62606 as http://wmot.orgFri, 04 Mar 2016 16:19:00 +0000There's A New Kendrick Lamar Project Out, But It May Sound Familiar AlreadyAnastasia Tsioulcas The technology of the day has everything to do with how you get your music — and the music business is pushing more and more toward streaming. With services like Spotify, Pandora, Tidal and Apple Music, there are a bunch of companies that want your ears — and your money. And a lot of those companies are trying to get exclusives from artists. Two albums that are very popular right now were released on Tidal, a streaming service owned by a group of artists headed by Jay-Z . One of those albums is near the top of the charts right now. The other isn't there at all. Rihanna 's song "Work," featuring Drake, is No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Work" appears on Rihanna's latest album, Anti , which was initially only sold through Tidal, where she is one of the co-owners. And Anti went platinum. But the way that Anti achieved that feat wasn't through Tidal. Last year, Rihanna signed a deal with Samsung that was reputed to be worth $25 million. Part of that deal was that Samsung gave away aIs Tidal Changing How Fans Talk About Music?http://wmot.org/post/tidal-changing-how-fans-talk-about-music
62446 as http://wmot.orgMon, 29 Feb 2016 22:23:00 +0000Is Tidal Changing How Fans Talk About Music?